Stitch
Experiment 626 (better known as Stitch) is an alien created by Dr. Jumba Jookiba and the protagonist of the 2002 Disney animated feature film, Lilo & Stitch. Background Development Chris Sanders first created the character of Stitch in 1985 for a planned children's book that never came to be. Years later, in 1997, when production on Mulan was wrapping up, he had the opportunity to pitch a film version of his planned story, beginning the development of the film. In early drafts, Stitch would have landed in Kansas (the setting was changed to Hawaii as a result of the greater isolation from large cities the islands would provide as well as the islands being some of Chris Sanders' favorite places) and the character himself was an intergalactic gangster rather than a recently-created genetic monster. In these early drafts, his gang (including ex-gang member Jumba) would be the ones hired by the Galactic Federation to hunt him down. Personality Throughout the course of the entire Lilo & Stitch franchise, Stitch is depicted as a character that is unlikable to many people except Lilo (on rare occasions, even she falls out with him, most notably in Lilo & Stitch 2, where she cries out at him that he is "bad and always will be bad!"), due to his destructive and temperamental behavior. It is interesting to note that people who are averse to Stitch (such as Mertle Edmonds and Dr. Hamsterviel) describe him as "ugly and deformed," while those who do love him (like Lilo, Nani and Jumba) describe him as "cute and fluffy." This reflects the basic idea behind Stitch and also his cousins: they do not correspond to many established criteria of good physical appearance, having an extra pair of arms, misshapen heads or other odd features. When Stitch is in his "evil" form (which is his true alien form), he is undeniably worrying as his somewhat botched physique underlines his at the time twisted behavior; in his "good" form however (the "dog" form that is trademarked and the form that the audience most often sees), Stitch's display of emotion at being rejected for his misbehavior and looks while trying to act good for Lilo are meant to make him seem more adorable to the audience. Despite his surface destructiveness, which does not go away completely even after he has become "good," Stitch is a complex character: according to his creator Jumba, Stitch as a destructive machine was not given a greater purpose in life. Since Stitch is trapped on an island in Hawaii, where there are relatively few things to destroy, he has many occasions to reflect on occupations other than evil. It is implied that Stitch destroys only because that is what he was programmed to do; but since he has a personality of his own (a fact that only Lilo truly understands), he also has the choice, and even the will, not to do so. Despite having superhuman strength and a high level of computer-intelligence, Stitch is emotionally fragile and has a childlike personality beneath his monsteresque exterior. Lilo believes that one reason why he originally pursued his destructiveness was for reasons similar to her own naughtiness—that it was because he was emotionally scarred (for having been made as a monster by Jumba), but received little or no understanding or sympathy from others. Stitch becomes much more well-meaning after his betterment, but is frequently unable to control all of his impulses to anti-social actions. Fortunately for him, Lilo (and later Reuben and Angel) is always there to support him and he returns her support willingly. There is a common misconception from viewers that Lilo is dependent on Stitch for protection and support; if anything, it is Stitch who is more dependent on Lilo. Despite her having her own troubles to contend with, Lilo makes every effort to help Stitch in life and, as the story progresses, he becomes more self-conscious and capable of making the right decisions thanks to his friend. At the end of the series, Stitch has friends, family, loved ones and a purpose worth believing in. Physical appearance Designed by his voice actor Chris Sanders, Stitch is a blue alien genetic creation standing around 3 feet tall. He strongly resembles a koala or a French bulldog and is referred to as a dog throughout much of the franchise, as the humans (except Lilo, Nani, Cobra and David) were completely oblivious to the fact he wasn't. He has sharp teeth within his mouth, along with a long pink tongue. A short tail cuts out from his rear. He has a limited ability to change his physical appearance, as he can retract a second set of arms, his claws, his antennae and the three spines on his back into his body. During his time as a criminal, Stitch donned a red spacesuit with an upside-down triangle consisting of a red border and yellow center on his chest and each of his sleeves and patches consisting of a dark red border and orange center on each of his legs, black belt with a dark red square buckle, both black collar, cuffs, and anklets. Powers and Abilities While explaining his creation to the Galactic Council early on in Lilo & Stitch, Dr. Jumba gives the following rundown of Stitch's powers: "He is bulletproof, fireproof, shockproof, and can think faster than a super computer. He can see in the dark and can move objects 3,000 times his size. His only instinct - to destroy everything he touches!" *'Feral Mind (temporarily):' In the original Lilo & Stitch movie, Jumba claimed that Stitch's "destructive tendency was taking effect" and that he would be irresistibly drawn to large cities to "back up sewers, reverse street signs and steal everybody's left shoe." *'Dense Body Tissue:' Although we rarely see Stitch shot at with a bullet, he does survive the crash of his spaceship with only a scratch, is only briefly stunned by a fall of several thousand feet and has to be run over by three tractor-trailers in succession to be knocked out. *'Fireproof Skin:' He drives a tanker truck of gasoline into a volcano and ends up only a little singed. *'Bulletproof Skin:' Weapons fired from plasma guns seem to cause him discomfort, although he can hold it in his hands long enough to throw the plasma back at his enemies. *'Shockproof:' He also has some resistance to electricity; he was able to take a electrical attack from Sparky and he quickly recovered from it. However, he can still feel pain from shocking despite his immunity to electricity. *'Hypercognition:' Thinking faster than a super computer is harder to quantify, but he does escape from captivity fairly ingeniously, builds a model of San Francisco after only glancing at a postcard; grabs a crossword puzzle from the table and finishes it in about 7 seconds; builds a bomb out of a plasma-bolt, a doll and a roller skate; builds a "bucking bronco" out of a toaster, a vacuum cleaner, and a lamp; reads aloud a description of a display at a local museum at a remarkable speed; is able to understand he can use a human as a shield from Jumba, by Pleakley's presence; and generally picks up quickly on what is happening around him. *'Lingual Intuition:' Stitch can converse fluently in over 20 different languages, but prefers Tantalog (his native language). *'Cooking Intuition:' He can cook 372 recipes, but prefers Chinese food best of all. *'Parallel Computing:' He is an information repository, with a dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedia, and experiment catalogue, and records every moment of his life, in a reserved portion of his brain that can theoretically store up to 300 PB. *'Guitar Player:' He is also fluent in playing the guitar. *'Vehicle Intuition:' Also driving any sort of vehicle, which can be as simple as riding a tricycle or as complex as piloting inter-galactic spaceships. *'Enhanced Strength:' His ability to lift objects 3,000 times his own size and weight is seen several times throughout the franchise, including incidents where he picks up a descending blast door, hits Dr. Jumba with a thrown Volkswagen Beetle (shouting gleefully, "Blue punch buggy! No punch back!") and stops an 18-wheeled tanker of gasoline dead in its tracks. The reason why Stitch can lift 3,000 times his own weight even though he has small arms is because his muscles contain excessive compressed amounts of myofibril in one muscle cell. This muscular arrangement makes Stitch's muscles contract 1,000 times faster than a human's muscle can and makes them much much more powerful. The ability is sometimes joked about in the later series; for example, in Stitch! The Movie, Hämsterviel, while physically restraining Stitch for a cloning experiment, counters Stitch's strength with restraint devices that are equal in strength themselves, as Hämsterviel loudly declares, to "three-thousand and one!" times Stitch's own weight. This was accomplished due to the fact that Stitch cannot lift even an ounce larger than 3,000 times his size and weight. *'Wall Crawling:' Pads on Stitch's hands and feet can secrete a sticky substance allowing him to adhere to almost any surface and scale buildings and walls. *'Spherical Form:' His skeletal system is very flexible, allowing him to put his feet into his mouth and become a rolling ball and also to allow him to squeeze through tight spaces. *'Enhanced Speed:' Stitch was shown to super speed past Lilo and Pleakley while carrying Jumba during a bet they made to catch experiments 501 Yin and 502 Yang. His speed is also usually used when he's in his spherical form. *'Enhanced Jump:' Stitch's legs are small, but powerful enough to enable him to jump several feet into the air. *'Electromagnetic Vision:' His eyes can pick up various forms of light and he can filter out one or the other if necessary. Stitch can see in normal vision, during this mode, his eyes appear black in color. Furthermore, he can also magnify his vision. *'Night Vision:' Eyes appear green. *'Infrared Vision:' Eyes appear red. *'X-Ray Vision:' Eyes appear bright green. *'Audio Amplifier:' He also can act as an audio amplifier, radio and/or microphone, illustrated when he uses a claw as the needle on a record player, and the music comes out of his open mouth. *'Enhanced Hearing & Smell:' He has an acute sense of smell and hearing. *'Skilled Hand-to-Hand Combat:' He is also dexterously skilled in hand-to-hand combat, using all four arms or just two. *'Alien Form:' In his alien form, he has three spines on his back, two antennae on his head, and can grow two extra pair of arms. *'Dog Form:' Stitch can hide his spines, antennae and extra pair of two arms in his body, taking the form of an ordinary Earth dog; he used this to become Lilo's dog. *'Semi-Immortality:' Stitch can't age; when Skip flashed 10 years ahead, he didn't age a bit, but for some reason Babyfier's powder reversed him into an infant, meaning he's immune to aging older. *'Vacuum Adaptation:' Along with the rest of his cousins, Stitch can survive in the vacuum of space due to being a genetic alien. Weaknesses *'Water:' Stitch's greatest weakness is his inability to float or swim due to his dense molecular structure, which causes him to sink like a stone in water. Stitch originally had an instinctive aquaphobia, but was able to overcome it because of Lilo's influence over him. *'Sonic Blasts:' Another weakness is the fact that his super-sensitive hearing can lead to temporary deafness when exposed to sonic blasts, such as Yaarp's destructive sound blast. *'Strength Limit:' As stated above, he cannot lift even an ounce larger than 3,000 times his size and weight. Appearances Trivia Category:Characters from Lilo & Stitch Category:Characters